Sorry, long time not bought a new car, 21 years exactly, just passed the technical inspection yesterday, good for another probably 3-4 years (they are late with the tests in Kanton Zurich).
But whenever I bought a new car I could get more than 12-15% reduction by paying cash, I think 20% is (or was?) quiet normal in Switzerland, especially buying in December when they need to get rid of the cars. So, is it really worth it?
Nowadays, prices are really transparent, so if youâve found your dream car, you can just search for the cheapest one on Comparis. The dealer will also know that they are the cheapest because they have the data too, so your suggested rebate range doesnât seem realistic to me.
I worked in a car sale in the 70s, they already had price lists for new cars then. But I found it very interesting how those were always maximum prices and reaching end of year the real prices went down quiet a lot.
When I bought my last new car in 2004 I directly asked and was offered 20% for a cash deal. I think this is normal considering the risk they take with a credit that is offered âat 0 % interestâ.
But as I said, it always depends. Hardly ever have I seen two persons paying the same for the same car⊠and I suppose this did not change much.
Maybe also worth checking oneâs employee benefits. Some (large) employers have good deals with some brands. Usually 10-20% off list price in addition to existing promotions.
That was already a thing in the 70s when I worked at the car dealership, was called âFlottenrabattâ. The point is, it is not a âfleetâ, it is a single car. So just be nasty and ask for the reduction anyhow.
I donât think the Internet changed much for the new cars market. Buying a car is like buying a horse in the old days and the methods did not change neither.
The price is always âto be foundâ depending on many factors. A good car salesman looks at you and knows exactly how much he can charge.
The good thing with new cars is that you know the maximum price today thanks to the internet and in the past thanks to the printed price lists you could find in magazines.
I think car retail changed a lot in the past decades. I do not have insider knowledge, but my observations are, that a reseller / local shop has to enough margin to give 20% discount by himself.
Flottenrabatte at bigger companies are 10-20%. With special deals the highest I saw was 35%.
These discounts are altought offered by the importer and not the reseller. And you are right, usually everybody in the company is entitled to buy a car with âfleetâ conditions. So is just a marketing thing.
If you dont have these discounts at your employer ask your friends. Often they can buy one car each year, and the period where transfer of ownership is prohibited is often only 6 months
But those rebates are for the list price, not the price already advertised by the dealer. If you think about it, itâs another customer scam: the same car with âFlottenrabattâ costs the same as it would on the open market, because nobody sells high-volume cars at list price unless the customer specifically orders it in a particular configuration.
You can easily confirm this by configuring a car from any manufacturer, and then comparing it to a car listed on Comparis, Autoscout, etc with the same configuration. The car will always be cheaper if you buy it from a dealerâs lot and not order it for list price.
Thanks for this thread! I hope I could ask some clarification questions here as some of you have already gone through this process:
I went to Tesla Model Y configurator (all wheel, long range) on Germany website and its ~53k Euro (i.e. 49.8k CHF). On Switzerland website, itâs ~53k CHF.
I went to import-butler.ch website suggested earlier and the calculation of importing cost is 47.3k CHF:
So this could be around 5k CHF potential saving. As far as I understand, for the Tesla 1) the warranty is same between Germany and Switzerland. 2) Tesla doesnât offer âfleet discountâ. So I assume this is correct way to compare. Are there any caveats that I am missing?
On Autoscout24.ch, I also saw âdirect/parallel importâ offers for 2024 Tesla version with ~6 months old registration. These vehicles are with category âNew, Daily Registrationâ. Same warrantee (4 year, 80k km) for ~41k CHF.
I was wondering if there are any specific things I have to worry about considering such vehicles (aware about the âimportâ tag and hence slightly less reslae value but wondering about the warranty, serviceability, etc)
If you have any insights / recommendation, it would be helpful! thank you!
